An electrified powertrain typically includes one or more high-voltage alternating current (AC) electric machines, each of which is powered by a high-voltage direct current (DC) battery pack. A power inverter module receives a DC voltage from the battery pack and generates an AC output voltage suitable for powering the electric machines. Conductive charging of the various cells of the battery pack may be achieved by connecting an onboard charge coupler to an offboard power supply, such as an available wall outlet, AC charging station, or DC fast-charging station, e.g., electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).
Onboard a vehicle having the type of electrified powertrain noted above, an AC-DC converter may be used as a battery charger or onboard charging module (OBCM) to convert an AC charging voltage from an offboard AC power supply into a DC voltage suitable for use by the DC battery pack and other DC devices. The OBCM may include a passive diode bridge and actively-controlled semiconductor switches which collectively eliminate negative cycles of the applied AC charging voltage waveform. The resultant voltage output is then filtered to provide a suitable DC voltage to a DC voltage bus.
Charging of the high-voltage battery pack may be achieved in other ways. For instance, wireless charging is an emerging alternative charging process in which relatively high-frequency AC power is delivered to a primary induction coil positioned in close proximity to a vehicle-side wireless charger having a secondary induction coil. An operator of an electric vehicle, for instance, parks the vehicle above an infrastructure-side induction system, which typically contains the primary induction coil and associated power conversion and voltage rectification hardware. The AC current delivered to the primary induction coil induces an AC current in the vehicle-side secondary induction coil. The induced AC current is then converted to DC current using hardware of the type described above.